The lady has a surprising conservative connection in that she was "discovered" in this country by William F. Rickenbacker, then a senior editor of National Review. A concert-level pianist himself, he announced in an NR review that de Larrocha was undoubtedly the finest pianist in the world. Her concert career here took off after that. Rickenbacker and Bill Buckley (Spanish speaker, tolerable harpsichord player) became good friends with her. One of them said somewhere that Alicia could knock down a bottle of good red wine for lunch, then do a concert that evening without a missed note.